America loves Downton Abbey, the period drama that follows the goings on up and down the staircases of Lord and Lady Grantham’s stately home. It’s been good fun with great costuming and characters we love and love to hate. Season three brought its shockers with the deaths of Lady Sybil and then Matthew, the heir to the estate and Lady Mary’s beloved husband.

Nothing, however, prepared us viewers for what happened in the second episode of Season four, which aired on public television stations on Jan. 12. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, STOP READING RIGHT NOW.

If you have, you likely have an opinion about what happened near the end of this week’s show. We were warned at the beginning with the Viewer Discretion label advising us of violence to come. Even so, when a visiting valet attacks and rapes our dear, sweet Anna, many were shocked, shaken. Anna is the ladies maid to Lady Mary and the wife of Mr. Bates, the valet to Lord Grantham.

American viewers are just now reacting to the show, something our British friends and lovers of all things Downton did in October when the show aired across the pond. The reaction there, like here now, was mixed, with some applauding the effort to show the reality of violence toward women while others deploring what they believed was gratuitous violence toward women and sensationalism.

Christopher Stephens wrote in the Daily Mail Online that Anna’s violent rape “shattered Downton’s magic” after the episode aired in Britain. Many viewers called the BBC in outrage, with some declaring they were finished with the show. Others thought the scene was an accurate portrayal of women’s vulnerability at the time and how little recourse they would have had. Joanna Froggat, who plays Anna, said she was proud of Julian Fellowes, the show’s creator, for tackling the subject and called it a “brave thing to do.”

In an interview with the BBC, Fellowes said "The point of our handling is not that we're interested in sensationalising but we're interested in exploring the mental damage and the emotional damage."

A current debate is raging on the show’s Facebook page, with almost 900 viewers weighing in with their opinions about the rightness or the wrongness of the scene and what will become a major plot point in the season to follow.

So, readers, what do you think about what happened to Anna and where this takes the rest of Season 4. Take the poll below and feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7715784/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;What was your reaction to the shocker on 'Downton Abbey' this week?&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;